Magic and mayhem as Warcraft movie nears release

Invading soon a movie theater near you, Warcraft: The Beginning is a CGI action epic likely to delight both gamers and lovers of fantasy action.

Due for release in the USA on June 10, the film tells a story of how humans and orcs first came into contact. Turns out that the poor orcs were actually refugees, forced to flee their home world when it faced destruction and seek sanctuary on the human planet of Azeroth.

Of course, orcs being orcs, they don’t set out to be good neighbors with their human hosts, and plan a bloody war of destruction. Or most of them do.

Durotan played by Toby Kebbell

But a few orcs, and a few humans, are willing to give peace a chance, and set out to avoid the mutual annihilation which many of their comrades seem to relish. Cue scenes of intrigue and allegations of betrayal all round.

Warcraft has been given a 13 rating by the MPAA on the basis of its extended scenes of fantasy violence. (War-gamers will love that!)

The movie is the result of collaboration first announced in 2006 between Blizzard Entertainment, creators of the Warcraft game universe, and Legendary Pictures. During the film’s long gestation period the producers parted company with original director Sam Raimi and writer Robert Rodat. It is now directed by a person named Duncan Jones (Moon, also Source Code) and written by him and Charles Leavitt.

Filming finally took place in 2014 and it’s now in post-production, with a trailer released for viewing. Distribution is by Universal Pictures.

Stars include Travis Fimmel, also Paula Patton, also Ben Foster, also Dominic Cooper, Toby Kebbell, Ben Schnetzer, Rob Kazinsky and also Daniel Wu. Okay, no big names there, but they do a capable job and the pacey script will keep audiences riveted to the screen.

In fact Fimmel is no stranger to warrior life – he’s best known for playing Norse warlord Ragnar Lothbrok in the 2013 TV series Vikings.

Vikings Ragnar Lothbrok

And then there’s the CGI graphics, which make for spectacular viewing – think Avatar with added swords and sorcery. Director Jones has said that the result should have with the complexity of Game of Thrones mixed with Avatar.

Jones decided to go for live action elements, with human actors to play the orcs, to give them more depth of character. Industrial Light & Magic contributed over 1,000 visual effects shots. Their specialists took photographs and scans of the actors playing orcs and integrated the images with concept art created by Blizzard's artists.

There’s also a strong female character, half orc and half human, played by a person named Paula Patton, just to prove that it isn’t all about testosterone rage.

Paula Patton

Germany’s Ramin Djawadi composed the soundtrack. His previous credits include Iron Man, Pacific Rim and Person of Interest.

So this long-delayed epic, said to have cost $100 million to make, is finally happening. Will it please loyal Warcraft gamers? Blizzard has gone to great lengths to see it does. Will it appeal to a wider audience? Time alone will tell!